OnLive subscribers urged to keep tabs on broadband data usage

The videogame streaming service could use up 20GB of data in six hours.

OnLive subscribers have been urged to keep a close eye on their data usage while streaming videogames from the cloud-based service.

The on-demand gaming platform hit the UK market at the end of September, offering customers access to more than 100 top titles such as Batman: Arkham City, Tropico 4, Saints Row: The Third and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Amid concerns that taking advantage of the service could lead broadband customers to consume substantial amounts of data, Techbeast.net conducted a trial to discover how much would be used during a typical gaming session.

Playing Just Cause 2 through OnLive for around five minutes used around 200MB of data, meaning gamers can expect to get through around 20GB in as little as six hours.

While some internet service providers (ISPs) offer truly unlimited broadband packages with no usage restrictions, others have monthly limits in place that could easily be exceeded by streaming games from OnLive.

The gaming platform has already fallen foul of budget-conscious ISP TalkTalk's traffic management policies, with subscribers finding they were able to use the service during the day but could not connect at peak times.

At first, it was assumed OnLive was simply struggling to cope with demand, but support staff noticed that TalkTalk broadband customers affected by the issue were seeing unexpectedly high levels of packet data loss.

Speaking to TorrentFreak shortly after OnLive was launched in the UK, a spokesperson from the ISP said: "This has been raised with our network team and we are currently investigating."

Having looked into the problem, TalkTalk has since insisted it has been corrected, meaning the company's broadband customers should now be able to stream games at any time of day or night.

"Unfortunately the recently launched OnLive gaming service was incorrectly identified as a peer-to-peer application," a spokesperson explained.

"We've changed this and are currently testing with customers. We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused."

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